Upcoming Highlights: Illustration Art

At Auction June 4

Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

Masters from the Golden Age of Illustration Art include Tom Lovell and Harold Von Schmidt, as well as two Four Roses whiskey advertisements by John Philip Falter, and Frederic Remington’s depiction of Buffalo Soldiers, A Halt to Tighten the Packs. A small archive of material from American illustrator Matt Clark includes a dozen small sketches with artist’s notes and his Western Union telegraphs Saturday Evening Post‘s Kenneth Roberts and Pete Martin. Mead Schaeffer’s dramatic cover for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick leads the section.

From the world of theater comes several pieces by giants of the industry, with one of Eugene Berman’s very first set designs, and the atmospheric backdrop Pet Shop Drop by Jo Mielziner for the 1940 Broadway production of Pal Joey, plus two drawings by Edy Legrand for La Divine Comédie, purchased from the artist by Mielziner in 1935. The headline for the section is Al Hirschfeld’s Paul Robeson as Othello, published in The New York Times to promote the 1943 revival of Shakespeare’s play on Broadway. The production was major for being the first in America to cast an African American actor in the title role with a white supporting cast. Also on offer is Pavel Tchelitchew’s scenic design for Mozart’s Violin Concerto, which was choreographed by ballet legend George Balanchine.

Cartoon highlights abound with several by Charles Addams, and one by Winsor McCay that his editor deemed “the best cartoon Mr. McCay ever made.” The ever-popular New Yorker section is led by a recently rediscovered Edward Gorey cover, Cat Fancy, of a cat delightfully lost on a floral-clad comforter.